Help Me Through This
by emraldflames1993
Summary: Demyx is a high school student struggling to support his family through his mothers alcoholism and trying to come to terms with his sexuality. Axel is happily in a relationship with what could be the love of his life but what will he do when an old friend reaches out for help? AkuDemy, rated M for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes

Well, this is the first fanfic I've had the guts to post anywhere. I'm really quite inexperienced in writing fanfics so if you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms it would be much appreciated.

So, I don't own anything from the Kingdom Hearts franchise obviously. Also, I don't own any of the songs/albums/artists etc. that are mentioned.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Demyx sighed as he exhaled a long ashen tendril of smoke. His group of friends at high school had abandoned him two months ago and since then everything had been going from bad to worse. His mother had become increasingly more alcoholic and as a result Demyx was in charge of caring for himself and his younger sister Rikku who had just hit puberty. His father hadn't contacted him for a whole year and apparently now had a new child with another woman. The only person Demyx could even think of going to was Axel, the one person who had ever piqued Demyx's interest sexually. Because of this Demyx had gone on to assume himself to be gay which just worsened his situation.

He sucked the cigarette smoke deep into his lungs, feeling the pleasant burn and savouring the taste of tobacco and whatever other poisons he was inhaling. Three months ago he would never have considered smoking. As far as he was concerned it was a filthy habit, but everything had happened too fast and one of the teachers at school, Mister Auron Dunbaton, had offered him one. Since then he hadn't stopped. One more deep breath and the cigarette was finished, so Demyx flicked it at the road and stood up from his comfortable spot on the curb. From the brief amount of time spent with Axel at school before Axel had started drifting from the group, Demyx had learned that Axel always went to Destiny Park on Saturday evenings.

As Demyx walked up the long dark streets to Destiny Park he hummed a tune to himself. He was a musical prodigy and always had a tune in his head. Lately they had all been in minor chords, depressingly beautiful. He ran a hand up through the spiked blonde top of his mullet, the tune reaching a climax as he reached the park.

It was huge; lush grass with a pine forest looking border. There was a playground in the centre of the park and next to it an ice cream vendor, famous for their Sea-Salt ice cream flavour. Sure enough, Axel's flaming red mane was there. He was swinging on one of the swings, a smaller blonde with a wave styled flick of hair on the swing next to him. Demyx took a deep breath, trying and failing to calm himself down. As a last resort he lit another cigarette and calmed himself through the nicotine as he started walking towards his last resort.

He was only about 15 meters from Axel and the blonde when the blonde got up and straddled Axel on the swing. They started making out in a matter of seconds and Demyx almost choked on smoke. He recognised the boy now; it was Roxas, the twin brother of Sora. The Sora who had started a fight with Demyx because Demyx had accidentally bumped into him in a corridor. The same Sora that had caused Demyx's group of friends (Organisation XIII), to throw Demyx out because he had lost against the younger boy. Demyx spluttered as the sight of his crush and his enemy's brother making out hit him hard in the chest, almost winding him. Axel glanced up from Roxas quickly and put his arms protectively around him. His arms relaxed when he saw who it was though.

"Dem? What are you doing out here? You never go out on Saturday nights." Demyx just stared blankly as Axel spoke, Roxas squirming around to look at the intruder. Axel frowned at Demyx's speechlessness. "Oh come over here Dem and talk wont you? It's annoying having you stare. Got it memorized? Didn't you know I was gay or something? I thought everyone knew about it."

"I... Uh... Sorry... I've gotta... Bye..." Demyx stuttered and turned around sucking madly at his cigarette. He had to go home to Rikku. He couldn't remember if he had given her dinner or not and it was nearing 7 pm.

"Who was that Axe?" Roxas muttered into Axel's ear. Axel stared after Demyx with a puzzled expression.

"One of the Orgy guys... He came in after me... I don't remember him smoking. He always hated me for it. Something must be up..."

"One of the Orgy guys? His name isn't Demyx is it? Sora got into a huge fight with the muso in the Orgy a couple of months ago. Beat him up pretty bad."

"He what?! What did he do that for?! Demyx is a musician not a fighter! Got it memorized? There is no way he would have provoked that! I'm gonna kick your brothers' ass when I take you home. He probably got Dem kicked out of the Orgy; they're such a stuck up group." Axel screeched, throwing Roxas off him as he stood. His spiked long red hair shook as he spoke. Roxas stared blankly up at his boyfriend from the floor, shocked at the sudden passion flaming from the pyromaniac.

"Uhm... I'm sorry?" Roxas muttered and Axel stared down at him, the anger blowing out quickly when he realised he had hurt Roxas.

"Shit babe, I'm sorry. That just got me a bit fired up" Axel said as he pulled Roxas up into a hug.

"It's alright. You didn't ever have a thing for him did you? Seeing as he didn't know you were gay I'm guessing you weren't together..."

"No, no... He's just a good kid. He wouldn't hurt a fly. We were friends in the Orgy, and I don't like the idea of someone hurting my friends is all. Got it memorized?" He replied quietly into Roxas' ear. He was lying through his teeth of course. For his time in the Orgy before Roxas came along, Axel had been infatuated with Demyx. There was something about the mullet hair style and amazing guitar riffs that had caught Axel's green eyes. Roxas smiled into Axel's shoulder, sufficiently comforted that Demyx wouldn't end up being a nuisance.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes

I'm really quite inexperienced in writing fanfics so if you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms it would be much appreciated.

So, I don't own anything from the Kingdom Hearts franchise obviously. Also, I don't own any of the songs/albums/artists etc. that are mentioned.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Demyx slammed the front door of his small run down home behind him. The interior of the house was decently decorated and very clean. Demyx hated the idea of his little sister growing up in what looked like a college boy dormitory so he cleaned regularly.

"Demy, is that you?" Rikku's high voice called from the direction of the kitchen.

"Yeah Ri... I'm home. Sorry it's late. Did I make you dinner?" He asked, working hard to keep his voice from breaking or from sniffling as he spoke. Unfortunately for him, his sister knew him much too well since he was her entire family to her now that their mother and father couldn't look after them.

"Demy what's wrong? Did that kid get in a fight with you again?" She asked as she ran out of the kitchen and grabbed his shoulders gently, looking him over for blood and bruising.

"No... Just had a run in with someone I liked... Didn't realise they were in a relationship." Muttered Demyx as he pushed her hands away softly and ruffled her long blonde hair. Rikku looked up into his eyes, concern pouring out their blue depths.

"Who was it? Was it that Larxene girl? You shouldn't get upset about her, she's horrible anyway."

"No Rikku... It... It wasn't a... Um... Girl..."

"What do you mean it wasn't a girl?" Demyx took a deep breath and blurted out his next sentence through closed eyes, scared his sister wouldn't accept him but too respectful of her to lie.

"The person I like is a guy" Rikku's eyes widened in shock, and then moments later she started to smile.

"Oh, good. I was beginning to worry you might never like anyone. Who was it then?" She said calmly.

"I... You don't mind?"

"Nope"

"You're sure?"

"Yep"

"Uh..."

"Just say his name already!"

"Axel, the redhead in my year that was in the Orgy with me." He said, happy that his little sister wasn't homophobic like their mother.

"Oh him, Yuna likes him. Paine and I think it's pretty funny, seeing as he's gay."

"You three knew." Stated Demyx, his thin eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, didn't everyone? Him and that Roxas guy are going out aren't they?" She said casually, flipping her hair behind her shoulder as she spoke. Demyx's eyes started burning again, tears threatening to come through.

"Yeah that's the one... Did I give you dinner? If I did I'm going to go have a bath ok?"

"Yes, you gave me dinner. Stop worrying so much. I _can_ cook you know." She said indignantly. Demyx gave her a quick hug, noticing that she was wearing her standard mini shorts and tank top.

"I'll be a while ok? Go to bed at 11 if I'm not out by then."

"Yeah bro, I will. Have fun"

Demyx walked away from his 13 year old sister and as soon as she couldn't see him he sped up to a run to the bathroom. He slid down the back of the door onto the ground, tears falling from his eyes as he hugged his knees to his thin chest. Everything was going wrong. First his dad left, then his mum started drinking, then he got beat up by a boy his sisters age, now he had no friends, a part time job at a dodgy record shop, a sister to look after and a crush on another man, and a taken man at that, to deal with. Not to mention his grades were going from bad to worse and there was little hope of getting to year 12.

In an attempt to console himself, Demyx got up and walked to the sink to put on one of his favourite albums; he had a CD player in the bathroom, his room and the kitchen, each with their own stack of CD's. When he found what he was looking for, one of David Bowie's albums, he put it on and turned it up extra loud, almost at full. After taking care of his music problem, Demyx walked to the bath and turned the faucets, more hot than cold. Demyx instantly felt calmer watching the water pour into the bath, water was his favourite thing in the world.

When the bath was full he undressed, the waterfall with swimming musical notes tattoo he had gotten with his father's permission was now revealed on his right shoulder. It had been one of the last things they had done together, not including the failed attempts at teaching Demyx to drive. Sighing deeply, Demyx sunk into the perfect temperature water. Steam rose from the water and danced in front of his eyes, seemingly trying to cheer him up with its movements. Shortly after his sobs had ceased and his tears had finally stopped falling, Demyx fell asleep in the water, more relaxed and calm than he had felt in weeks.

"Demyx! Wake up, it's already 11! I'm going to bed now. I love you." Demyx woke with a start, coughing as he inhaled water. Apparently he had managed to sink low enough to breathe through his nose but that was it.

"Thanks Rikku, goodnight. I'll see you in the morning" He replied.

He shivered as he pulled himself out of the cold water into the icy air. Wrapping a towel around himself, he turned the CD player off and threw the dirty clothes into the washing basket which he thankfully wouldn't need to empty for another couple of days. As he walked down the hall to his bedroom, he swayed to a calm song he was humming that he had made on his sitar. Unfortunately for him though, his mother chose that moment in time to open her bedroom door. Demyx stopped short of his wild looking mother. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail that looked to not have been brushed or washed for weeks, wispy pieces of fringe haphazardly framed her sunken, wrinkled face and the once bright cyan eyes were now dim as they bore into Demyx's. Mary's top lip slowly inched upwards in disgust, having moved from his eyes to his tattoo. Her ex husband hadn't told her about that little bonding experience, he had just taken Demyx out one day and come home grinning about how well the day had gone with Demyx. That was when she had started to hate Adam. And she had never been able to differentiate between Demyx and his father, they looked almost identical apart from the eyes. Demyx's shone 3 shades brighter cyan than hers ever had, but they were her eyes.

"What are you doing up this late?" She spat vehemently and Demyx pulled back, he always responded bodily to her words.

"I was having a bath, I'm going to bed now"

"Do you have any idea how much of my water you waste having a bath?! You should be having 2 minute showers. What's wrong with you? Do you want to be living off bread for the next few weeks? I can't afford to pay for your stupid baths and feed you as well. You can't do anything right can you? Oh, I wish you were never born. My life would be so much easier with just Rikku around. Get out of my sight, you and your damned _stupid_ tattoo will spoil my appetite" Mary hissed.

Demyx winced and ran past his mother as she continued shouting insults down the hall at him. When he got to his room he hurriedly closed the door and put on some music. Thankfully she had been much nicer then than she usually was, but that didn't stop him from breaking down in his bed. '_So much for getting a decent sleep for work tomorrow'_ he thought grudgingly as he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him away from reality.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes

I'm really quite inexperienced in writing fanfics so if you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms it would be much appreciated.

So, I don't own anything from the Kingdom Hearts franchise obviously. Also, I don't own any of the songs/albums/artists etc. that are mentioned.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

The sun shone in through Demyx's eyelids as he woke up to his alarm. He had had music on all night but for some reason that didn't make him sleep any easier. When he finally opened his eyes and rolled out of bed, 20 minutes had passed and he swore under his breath as he whisked around the room getting dressed for work. He quickly ran to the bathroom and started brushing his teeth, continuing down the hall to make his sister some lunch before he left, having lost his own appetite a long time ago, he only required one meal a day and that was usually around 3:30 pm, the time between school and work for four days of his week. He grimaced as he noticed the shattered bottle of vodka in the sink and the two in the rubbish bin; his mother had apparently decided to have a long night. Cleaning as he rinsed off his toothbrush and left it next to the sink to be collected when he got home, he started singing a song he had recently heard at work; 'Right Away, Great Captain!' by a band with the same name. He had grown quite fond of the band and when he finished preparing his sisters salad sandwich, he decided he would take one of their CD's home with him after work.

Scampering down the mostly empty streets, Demyx sung louder than he normally did, his iPod playing Korn's 'Love Song'. Unknown to him however, Axel was walking a few blocks behind, holding Roxas loosely around the shoulders. As Demyx walked, Axel stared at Demyx's arse from behind his dark sunglasses. He frowned as he noticed the blonde had somehow lost weight and now looked to be an XS rather than a S. Frowning deeper, Axel tried to remember the last time he had spoken to Demyx aside from a few words in the halls at school and was shocked when he realised it must have been a year. Marking how long he and Roxas had been dating.

"Babe, what are you frowning about? I know it's early but come on, 8:30 is a better time to walk me home than 7 like normal. I don't know what dad did yesterday but it must have been pretty awesome to get the extra hour and a half" Roxas whined, trying to figure out the reason behind Axel's sudden faces.

"Oh, it's nothing hun. Say, do you remember me and Demyx chatting since we started dating?" Roxas' eyes narrowed.

"No. But I'm sure it's for a reason. Why?"

"Nothing... I just think he might be going through some stuff at home is all. I feel kinda bad that I haven't been there for him"

"I'm sure if it was bad he would have tried talking to you about it." Roxas replied shortly, hoping to end the conversation. Axel finally looked up and smiled, kissing Roxas on the forehead as he did so.

"Yeah you're right. Sorry babe. So, shall I walk you to school tomorrow?" Axel queried, carefree as he could be without alerting Roxas to the fact that he was still thinking about Demyx. He knew how Roxas could get when he paid too much attention to other boys. It was most of the reason he had stopped hanging out with the Orgy. That and the fact that Marluxia and Larxene made him want to throw himself off a cliff.

Roxas smiled and nodded, satisfied that Axel had stopped thinking about Demyx. Roxas could tell that Axel was oddly protective of the thin teen, but he couldn't tell why. And until he could prove it was nothing more than a friendly bond, or even a brotherly bond, he would make sure Axel stayed away from Demyx.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes

I'm really quite inexperienced in writing fanfics so if you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms it would be much appreciated.

So, I don't own anything from the Kingdom Hearts franchise obviously. Also, I don't own any of the songs/albums/artists etc. that are mentioned.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"Thanks for letting Roxas out sir" Axel said with an easy smile under Roxas' fathers glare.

"No worries. Thanks for getting him home on time." And with that the door was slammed in Axel's face. Roxas' father was a very grumpy old man. It was probably only because he suspected his twin boys were both gay and was finding it hard to deal with. Neither boy had the heart to confirm his suspicions though. Although he wouldn't be angry, the twins knew that Marv would be in a state of shock for at least a few weeks and they didn't want to see him like that again after the death of their mother.

Axel started walking away, glancing over his shoulder a couple of times to smirk at Roxas, who he knew was staring after him through his bedroom window. When he was far enough down the street that Roxas could no longer see him though, he turned and started walking a little faster down an alley way between houses. He could only very barely remember the one time that the orgy had stayed at Demyx's house but he did remember the back streets they had walked Demyx down to get to his part-time job before they had all gone home.

As he walked, Axel started pulling at one of the spikes of red hair hanging down his shoulder. Frowning he realised that his unbuttoned black T-shirt was creased funnily on one side, and so he stopped walking in the middle of the last alley before the record store and looked down at his entire outfit. His red singlet got tucked into his knee length black shorts that hung wide, their several attached chains and straps haphazardly strewn around his legs. He left the red laces of his over sized black boots loose to let the tongues of his shoes droop forward a little, flame patterned socks peeking out just over the tops. After straightening himself out, he quickly pulled out his phone and used the reflection to check his spiked hair was all neat and firmly in place.

_'Wait... what the fuck am I doing?'_ Axel thought to himself, standing stock still with his phone reflecting his frozen, shocked expression. Thoughts slowly shifting from shocked to confused, he realised that he felt weirdly ill, the kind of ill he had heard people refer to as being 'nervous' though he couldn't remember ever feeling that way himself. _'No way. There is absolutely no way in hell.'_ He told himself. He hadn't been nervous when he had started wooing Roxas, and he sure as hell wasn't nervous going to see Demyx. Axel reasoned that he must have just forgotten to eat breakfast that day; that he couldn't possibly be getting nervous over a boy he didn't have feelings for anymore. And with that settled he started walking again, a slight frown gracing his features as he tried to remember the way to the record shop.

A few streets after, he had calmed his stomach and was searching violently through his pockets for the headphones he knew he had somewhere. And then, just as he found them, his phone started to ring. He groaned as he saw his boyfriends name come up. After a couple of rings he answered and pressed the black smart phone to his ear.

"Hey babe, you almost home?" Roxas' voice rung clear through the phone, clear enough that Axel could pick up the slight hint of suspicion.

"Yeah, just about. I'm going through the park now. Is everything ok Hun?"

"I'm ok, I just wanted to make sure you were. I've got to go now, but can I Skype you soon?" Roxas asked cheerfully, evidently believing the lie Axel told.

"Sorry Rox, but I think that mum wanted me to get housework and shit done today. I'll message you ok? And I'll call you as soon as I'm free. Got it memorised?"

"Hmmm... okay then. I'll talk to you later on then."

"I love you"

"I love you too. See you"

_'Great... Now I'm lying to my boyfriend about seeing an old crush...' _Axel thought with a sigh. He hoped he wasn't going back to his normal self. So far with Roxas, Axel had been an absolute gentleman. He would go to the end of the earth and back for that boy. And it was the first time he could honestly say that about anyone; normally Axel was masterfully two-faced. He had managed to pull off an entire 6 month relationship whilst seeing 4 different guys in secret. The impressive part of that, was that the break up was completely uneventful, and then even after the boy he'd been dating actually found out about the others, he was not only fine with it but he still wanted Axel back.

But with Roxas everything was different. For the first time in his life, Axel didn't care for getting into other boys pants. He didn't care for trying to lie. He could actually see a future with Roxas, a little house and a couple of pets. Of course he still knew that nothing was forever and that just because he wanted all these things, it didn't mean any of it was going to happen. It was just the fact that Axel felt about anyone like this in the first place. And here he was, getting 'nervous' about seeing another guy.

Axel stopped dead in his tracks. Unconsciously his feet had taken him the rest of the way to the old record shop. The paint was peeling off the walls in patches, dark bricks peeking out through their blanket of cream. The record shop sign, "Destiny Tunes", splayed across the wall above the door in deep red splotches; faded so badly the only reason people knew what the shop was, was through word of mouth. Axel snorted as he looked over the building; the place was a dump. Yet somehow they managed to make enough money to stay in business. And Axel suspected it was mainly due to Demyx. The boy was quirky, withdrawn and a little slow on the uptake, but you put him around music and he shone. Demyx could tell you almost everything there was to know about music, not to mention he could create the most beautiful tunes on his sitar.

_'It's now or never Axe…'_ Axel thought to himself. And with a massive intake of breath, he pushed open the creaking, solid oak door to Destiny Tunes.


End file.
